Bolsa Verde

Transferring income and promoting environmental protection

In recent years, the country has experienced the implementation of various public policies for overcoming poverty and improving people's quality of life. In rural areas, one of the highlights is the Bolsa Verde, which breaks new ground by combining income transfers with stimulus for biodiversity conservation.

The program, created in 2011 under the Brazil Without Poverty Plan, establishes the payment of a quarterly stipend of R$300 to extractive families in extreme poverty, with incomes of less than R$ 77 per person, living in Sustainable Use Protected Areas (such as national forests, extractive reserves, federal areas of sustainable and environmentally differentiated settlements).

The initiative also includes coastal communities, indigenous areas and quilombolas, and other traditional communities. In June 2014, 60,000 families received the Bolsa Verde. Besides the benefit of the payment, the program encourages the sustainable management of the environment, promotes citizenship and encourages the participation of beneficiaries in environmental social, technical and professional training activities, , allowing them to further increase income and promote their emancipation and autonomy.

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In 2013, during the II Meeting of the People of the Forest, the Dilma government announced investments of R$ 712 million by 2016 for social assistance and extension measures for the extractivist peoples of the Amazon region.

These activities include the allocation of R$ 11.7 million to train 10,000 extractivist leaders in the regions served by the Bolsa Verde Program and investments of R$ 123 million for the social and economic empowerment of extractivist organizations. In addition, the government will allocate R$ 223.2 million for technical assistance and rural extension work.

Between 2003 and 2014, the Lula and Dilma governments worked from the perspective of the effectiveness of environmental protection linked to the guarantee of the rights to areas occupied by people and communities who traditionally use natural resources in harmony with nature.

Some of the highlights of this policy, combining environmental preservation and socio-territorial inclusion include:

From 2003 to 2013 were created 30 Units for Conservation and Sustainable Use (Extractive-RESEX Reserves, RDS- Sustainable Development Reserves and National Forests - FLONAS), a total of 7 million hectares, benefiting 32,000 families;

During the same period, 347 Agroextractive Settlement projects (Project that are Different from Agrarian Reform) benefited the lives of 90,000 families' in a total area of 7.5 million hectares;

New legal measures - such as the Terms of Authorization for Sustainable Use (Taus) - to ensure the right to housing in riparian areas with the traditional use of natural resources. Delivered by the Secretary of Federal Patrimony, the new tools allow access to credit, the Bolsa Verde and other public policies. During this period, more than 52,000 Taus were granted in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Amapá, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Roraima, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Tocantins and Pará.

In 2009, the regularization of traditionally occupied areas could also be made ​​by the issuance of Real Concession Contracts for the Existing Right of Use. 34 of 77 Sustainable Use of Protected Areas have been registered. More than 40,000 families have benefited, 4 million hectares.